Refuge (Save the Humanity)

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that people who arrive in Australia by boat and without a visa will be transferred to Papua New Guinea for processing.
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If found to be refugees they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea or a third country.

Geelong Diversitat chief Michael Martinez questioned the long-term implications of the shift.

"I can understand it in terms of trying to stop the deaths at sea," Mr Martinez said. "But if they really want a regional solution it should be all of the countries coming together - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka. All of them should come together and, I guess, even others.

"Though it might appeal to some voters, what are we doing ... we're exporting our problem."

Geelong is one of Victoria's major refugee settlement centres.

A high proportion of those arriving in Australia by boat are Hazara, an ethnic minority in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan which has historically suffered persecution. Most pay substantial amounts of money to be smuggled across Malaysia and Indonesia before being put on boats to Australia. Several hundred have died in shipwrecks attempting the journey.

"We are being bombed and shot at every day. If we could stay here we would prefer to be here with our families and friends. But we don't want to be killed," said Ahmed Kohzad, a campaigner in the south-west Pakistani city of Quetta, where many Hazara live.

Last week four Hazara men were shot dead by gunmen in Quetta. Nearly 30 died in a bomb blast three weeks ago in a Hazara-dominated neighbourhood of the city. Two bombs earlier this year in Quetta killed nearly 200 people, mainly Hazaras.

Rudd said the new measure would send "a clear and undiluted message to every people smuggler in the world that your business model is basically undermined" and that it would apply initially for one year.

The Hazara are Shia Muslims and are frequently targeted by extremists from among the Sunni majority in Pakistan. There are about 500,000 Hazara in Pakistan and about 3 million in Afghanistan.

Some Hazaras try to travel to Europe but most believe that reaching Australia gives them more chance of finding a safe haven. Australia also already has a large Hazara community.

-Mr Ahmadi, 23, treasures the sanctuary he has found in Australia and hopes his five siblings can join him.

"They are looking for a safe place," he said.

"I feel very helpless here; I can't do anything for them."

He believes the policy shift will alarm Afghans in Australia and Pakistan, where many now live after fleeing the war torn nation, and wonders how Australia will be perceived.

"They call it humanitarian. I don't think this will be a suitable word, it won't be humanitarian anymore," he said. "If we can save someone's life then why not?"

Mr Ahmadi helps settle new refugees in Geelong through Diversitat and opened his own grocery store in Corio last month.

"Australia is good, the people are very supportive," he said.

"The law is good, everyone feels safe."
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2013/07/22/369667_news.html

-A True Story

From refugee to businessman: a success story
It's the ultimate entrepreneurial testing ground: you risk your life savings on a perilous journey to a country where you arrive (if you're lucky) penniless, with little to build your future upon save your stamina and your smarts. It's capitalism at its most Darwinian, less Celebrity Apprentice than Refugee Apprentice, and yet its successes, like Riz Wakil, are many.

"I came here from Afghanistan in November 1999, when I was 18 years old," says Wakil. "We had 77 people on a 30-foot fishing boat. We ran out of water and food. Any proper food we had we gave to an Iraqi family, because they had young children to feed. So we just ate dried biscuits, with boiled rice every second or third day."

After nine months in Curtin Detention Centre, Wakil, an ethnic Hazara, was accepted as a refugee and released, whereupon he found casual work, mostly for printing companies.

Thirteen years later Wakil owns his own business in Fairfield, a printing and design company that turns over $300,000 annually and employs five people.

Many Australians see "boat people" as not only "illegal" but lazy.
http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/from-refugee-to-businessman-a-success-story-20130721-2qcqq.html

Why would they want to travel 100 miles away from their homeland? Well, the answer is that they are not safe. Each day there is a new headline on the News "4 Hazaras killed in another target Killing." Day by day, fear grabs the Hazaras by their throats! Another mother lost her 16 year old son; another father won't be able to return home from work; another sister waits for her brother to come home so they could all sleep peacefully. Is this humanity? They travel so long not just to have fun; they travel because they're targeted each day, brutally killed by the Talibans. Wouldn't they love to sit at their own home, be there when their children are growing? 

I don't understand politics and neither do I want to. Politics huh? The factor that kills innocent children? Politics... The law where the culprit sits in the corner watching the civilians die each second. From poverty to not having enough security! When will we all love each other and live in peace? When will the government and the politicians listen to the cry of the widow? Will they ever stop draining the blood of another hungry child? When will this stop? When!?

♥ I know many people hate refuges and hate when they have others coming from another country and living in theirs! But think about it, if you and your family were in danger and the only choice left for all of you was to go to another country for safety. To save yours and your children's lives, you have to leave everything behind with only limited amount of support. Not even knowing about your journey. Will you survive? Will you make it to safety? What if you get caught and sent back? How are your children going to continue to live without any support from their father? 

--Just Take Care. The next time you see another refuge, don't be too hard on them. Most of them are also giving to the society. 


PS- If by any chance you got offended by anything, I greatly apologise!

PEACE! ☺